Globalization began increasing in the 1980s due to greater movement of people, ideas, goods, and money across national borders. While globalization can increase prosperity through trade and spread of knowledge, it also contributes to exploitation of poor countries by rich ones and threatens local cultures. There are both economic and political manifestations of globalization, such as increasing economic integration worldwide, rise of international organizations, and challenges to the power of nation-states. Socially and culturally, globalization spreads information and popular culture globally but also widens the digital divide and increases Western cultural dominance in many regions.

1. Introduction to
Globalization

2. Introduction Assignment
Read the following text and explain the following:
- What is globalisation and when did it start?
- Who are the key players?
- Why is there global inequality, and is it getting worse?
- What kind of manifestations are there of globalization?
Write a summary in which you explain the positive and negative sides of
globalisation.

3. I. Introduction to Globalization
"Globalization" is a term that came into popular usage in the 1980's to describe the increased
movement of people, knowledge and ideas, and goods and money across national borders that has
led to increased interconnectedness among the world's populations, economically, politically, socially
and culturally. Although globalization is often thought of in economic terms (i.e., "the global
marketplace"), this process has many social and political implications as well. Many in local
communities associate globalization with modernization (i.e., the transformation of "traditional"
societies into "Western" industrialized ones). At the global level, globalization is thought of in terms of
the challenges it poses to the role of governments in international affairs and the global economy.
There are heated debates about globalization and its positive and negative effects. While globalization
is thought of by many as having the potential to make societies richer through trade and to bring
knowledge and information to people around the world, there are many others who perceive
globalization as contributing to the exploitation of the poor by the rich, and as a threat to traditional
cultures as the process of modernization changes societies. There are some who link the negative
aspects of globalization to terrorism. To put a complicated discussion in simple terms, they argue that
exploitative or declining conditions contribute to the lure of informal "extremist" networks that commit
criminal or terrorist acts internationally. And thanks to today's technology and integrated societies,
these networks span throughout the world. It is in this sense that terrorism, too, is "globalized." The
essays in this section address some of the complex questions associated with globalization in light of
September 11. Before moving to these essays, consider the discussion below about some of the
economic, political, social and cultural manifestations of globalization.
Economic manifestations of globalization
Increasingly over the past two centuries, economic activity has become more globally oriented and
integrated. Some economists argue that it is no longer meaningful to think in terms of national
economies; international trade has become central to most local and domestic economies around the
world.
Among the major industrial economies, sometimes referred to as the Organization of Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, 65 percent of the total economic production, or
GDP, is associated with international trade. Economists project that, in the U.S., more than 50 percent
of the new jobs created in this decade will be directly linked to the global economy.
The recent focus on the international integration of economies is based on the desirability of a free
global market with as few trade barriers as possible, allowing for true competition across borders.
International economic institutions, such as the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), facilitate this increasingly barrier-free flow of goods, services, and money
(capital) internationally. Regionally, too, organizations like the North America Free Trade Association
(NAFTA), the European Union (EU), and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) work
towards economic integration within their respective geographical regions.
Many economists assess economic globalization as having a positive impact, linking increased
economic transactions across national borders to increased world GDP, and opportunities for
economic development. Still, the process is not without its critics, who consider that many of the
economies of the industrial North (i.e., North America, Europe, East Asia) have benefited from
globalization, while in the past two decades many semi- and non-industrial countries of the geo-
political South (i.e., Africa, parts of Asia, and Central and South America) have faced economic
downturns rather than the growth promised by economic integration. Critics assert that these
conditions are to a significant extent the consequence of global restructuring which has benefited
Northern economies while disadvantaging Southern economies. Others voice concern that
globalization adversely affects workers and the environment in many countries around the world.

4. Discontent with the perceived disastrous economic and social manifestations of globalization has led
to large and growing demonstrations at recent intergovernmental meetings, including meetings of the
World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank, and the
Group of Eight (G8) leading industrial countries.
Political manifestations of globalization
Globalization has impacts in the political arena, but there is not a consensus among social scientists
about the nature and degree of its impact on national and international politics. Some political
scientists argue that globalization is weakening nation-states and that global institutions gradually will
take over the functions and power of nation-states. Other social scientists believe that while increased
global inter-connectivity will result in dramatic changes in world politics, particularly in international
relations (i.e., the way states relate to each other), the nation-state will remain at the center of
international political activity.
Political theorists and historians often link the rise of the modern nation-state (in Europe and North
America in the nineteenth century and in Asia and Africa in the twentieth century) with industrialization
and the development of modern capitalist and socialist economies. These scholars also assert that the
administrative structures and institutions of the modern nation-state were in part responsible for the
conditions that led to industrial expansion. Moreover, industrial development brought with it social
dislocations that necessitated state intervention in the form of public education and social "safety nets"
for health care, housing, and other social services. Consequently, the development of the
contemporary nation-state, nationalism, inter-state alliances, colonization, and the great wars of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries were in part political manifestations of changes in the structure of
economic production.
It follows from this argument that in the era of globalization, with its significant changes in global
economic relations, the nineteenth and twentieth century model of the nation-state may become
obsolete. The economic orientation of the modern nation-state has been centered on national
economic interests, which may often conflict with the global trend towards the free and rapid
movement of goods, services, finance, and labor. These processes give rise to the question of
whether the modern nation-state can survive in its present form in the new global age. Is it adaptable,
or will it gradually be replaced by emerging multinational or regional political entities?
Changes in political structure and practices resulting from economic globalization are only a partial
explanation of changes in world politics in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
International relations and world politics in the second half of the twentieth century were strongly
informed by another global factor - the Cold War (i.e., the ideological struggle between the Western
nations, the United States and its allies, and the Eastern Bloc, the Soviet Union and China and their
allies). The early and most intense years of the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s coincided with the
de-colonization of Asia and Africa and the creation of more than 70 new nation-states. Many of the
new nation-states of Africa and Asia had based their struggle for independence on the principles of
freedom, justice and liberty - principles espoused by both the Eastern and Western blocks. The
economic, political, and ideological competition between East and West had fertile ground in these
newly independent nation-states. Although the "cold war" never developed into a "hot war" of actual
military conflict in Europe or North America, civil wars within and wars between new nation-states in
Africa and Asia were fueled and supported by Cold War tensions. Major conflicts in Korea, Vietnam,
Congo, Angola, Mozambique, and Somalia are examples of regional conflicts that were fueled by the
Cold War.
To some experts, the demise of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc a decade ago promised a new
era of world peace and increased openness. The processes of globalization accelerated as goods,
ideas and people flowed more freely across borders in the post-Cold War political environment. In
place of policies of containment, the international community fostered policies of openness to trade
and based on the principles of democracy and rights.
With such increased openness, multilateral organizations, and in particular the United Nations (UN),
have changed their focus from maintaining the balance of power between the East and West to a

5. more global approach to peacekeeping/peace-building, development, environmental protection,
protection of human rights, and the maintenance of the rule of law internationally. The creation of legal
institutions like the international criminal tribunals that have sprung up in the past decade, as well as
the proliferation of major international conferences aiming to address global problems through
international cooperation, have been referred to as proof of political globalization. Still, since all of
these institutions rely on the participation of nation-states and respect the fundamental principle of
national sovereignty, the extent to which these institutions exhibit true political globalization continues
to be debated.
Social and cultural manifestations of globalization
Though there are many social and cultural manifestations of globalization, here are some of the major
ones:
• Informational services: The past two decades have seen an internationalization of
information services involving the exponential expansion of computer-based communication
through the Internet and electronic mail. On the one hand, the electronic revolution has
promoted the diversification and democratization of information as people in nearly every
country are able to communicate their opinions and perspectives on issues, local and global,
that impact their lives. Political groups from Chiapas to Pakistan have effectively used
information technology to promote their perspectives and movements. On the other hand, this
expansion of information technology has been highly uneven, creating an international "digital
divide" (i.e., differences in access to and skills to use Internet and other information
technologies due predominantly to geography and economic status). Often, access to
information technology and to telephone lines in many developing countries is controlled by
the state or is available only to a small minority who can afford them..
• News services: In recent years there has been a significant shift in the transmission and
reporting of world news with the rise of a small number of global news services. This process
has been referred to as the "CNN-ization of news," reflecting the power of a few news
agencies to construct and disseminate news. Thanks to satellite technology, CNN and its few
competitors extend their reach to even the most geographically remote areas of the world.
This raises some important questions of globalization: Who determines what news What is
"newsworthy?" Who frames the news and determines the perspectives articulated? Whose
voice(s) are and are not represented? What are the potential political consequences of the
silencing of alternative voices and perspectives?
• Popular culture: The contemporary revolution in communication technology has had a
dramatic impact in the arena of popular culture. Information technology enables a wide
diversity of locally-based popular culture to develop and reach a larger audience. For
example, "world music" has developed a major international audience. Old and new musical
traditions that a few years ago were limited to a small local audience are now playing on the
world stage.
On the other hand, globalization has increased transmission of popular culture easily and
inexpensively from the developed countries of the North throughout the world. Consequently, despite
efforts of nationally-based media to develop local television, movie, and video programs, many media
markets in countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America are saturated with productions from the U.S.,
Europe and a few countries in Asia (especially Japan and India). Local critics of this trend lament not
only the resulting silencing of domestic cultural expression, but also the hegemonic reach of Western,
"alien" culture and the potential global homogenization of values and cultural taste.